The haircut now out of the way it was time to pack the car for the 45 minute drive to the Ocean Terminal. It was a bit of a squeeze, with 4 large suitcases, a couple of suit carriers, dress carrier and hand luggage. We were there just after 12:15 and pointed at the priority queue for embarkation. Less than 30 minutes later we were in cabin 5149, with Jane eyeing up the Pol Acker. I steered her away from that with the promise of lunch. By this time the bags had arrived, so we rescued them from the corridor
Category: Port Days
Who’s idea was it to get up and experience the approach into New York, it all happened very early and it was a bit fresh stood out on the viewing platform on deck 13. It was all pretty spectacular though and probably worth the effort and we has excellent weather for it, a crisp and clear November morning. After the excitement was over it was back to the room for a lie down before heading off the ship and into Brooklyn. Immigration was painless, but a bit tedious with all the booths manned initially, but then for some inexplicable reason
It was a glorious day to be in Tortola, hot and sunny. We were up nice and early for breakfast and a quick jaunt off the ship. We don’t have any excursions booked today, so we just went for a walk around Road Town, with the intention of possibly getting a cab to Long Cane Bay for the beach. The cabs were advertising it at USD 8 for the ride. As it was I had forgotten my cap, and there wasn’t a whole lot of shops selling hats so we just went back to the ship for a bit of
Dominica today. We had an excursion booked to a plantation house, which unfortunately had to be cancelled because of road works, so we changed it to a Waterfalls and beach excursion instead. So it was an earlyish start, 09:10 in the Britannia for check in. We then had a slightly chaotic scrum to get on the coaches that we going to take us up into the highlands and the Waterfalls part of the tour. Jack Falls was our destination, a very picturesque waterfall at the bottom of a steep descent into the river valley. The concrete steps down were sound
We woke up to an announcement over the tannoy system explaining that several excursions have been cancelled because of an expected heavy swell, needless to say ours was one of those cancelled. That’s the third tour we’ve had cancelled on this trip so we were in a bit of a quandary, just go for a walk around Bridgetown or get a cab to the beach. A quick look at the map showed that we could do both of those things easily. So after breakfast we headed ashore on the Noddy train transfer that was provided to the cruise terminal. It
St. Lucia today and we are anchored out in Castries bay, so we will be tendering ashore today. We weren’t on any excursions and had decided to have a stroll around Castries. Getting off the ship was a bit of a chore, excursion travellers had priority so we had a bit of a wait and eventually got ashore about an hour and a half after leaving the room. We had a proper Caribbean welcome, with a steel band playing Christmas carols on the dockside. Castries was a big change from Bridgetown, no where near as clean, with broken and uneven
St Kitts today, it was a lovely morning approach into Basseterre where we had a 09:45 rendezvous arranged with our tour at the end of the pier. So after breakfast we made our way off the ship and onto the waiting coach then off for a quick tour of St Kitts, heading out to our first stop which was the Amazing Grace experience. This was in a church out past Sandy Lane, and was the story of the hymn Amazing Grace. The links between John Newton, the hymn’s author and St Kitts was pretty tenuous, but it was a good
It is our final port day today, the beautiful city of Lisbon. It was another clear sunny day, a little bit of a fresh breeze, but very nice out in the sun. We had booked a shore excursion for today, Urban Adventurers walking tour of Lisbon. After breakfast we headed down to the shuttle bus as the start of the tour was at Restauradores Square, which was, handily, the drop off spot for the shuttle. We were there early, so we bought, wrote and posted some postcards. At 10:30 we met up with our guide and the ten other members
It’s a grey old day in Gibraltar the peak is obscured by a swathe of cloud. We were missing a couple of diners last night, so there were only eight of us. The food was excellent yet again, sweet corn chowder and sirloin steak for me, spring rolls and roast guinea fowl for Jane. After breakfast it was time to go bargain hunting ashore. Gibraltar’s Main Street is a bit of a walk from the ship, but it was pleasant enough, dodging the slower walkers and we were in amongst all the duty free shops in about fifteen minutes. The
Another glorious morning here in the Med. We’ve arrived in Cartagena and it looks like it’s going to be a good one. Breakfast was much more successful today, I had Eggs Benedict and Jane had a Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel, very nice. After breakfast we disembarked to walk around the city. Yesterday’s Arctic wind had been replaced by a nice gentle breeze which made for a very pleasant walk. Postcards were bought along with stamps, we found a nice little cafe to write them and banish my churros cravings. After that he headed back in the general direction